The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms cut the number of public hearings on health claims and health-related statements on alcoholic beverages and advertising from five to two after too few people requested to testify.

The current controversy over biotech foods may prompt some manufacturers to make nonbiotech food claims. Speaking at a March meeting sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a GMA spokesperson said guidelines for voluntary nonbiotech claims are needed to ensure that the claims do not mislead consumers about the composition, safety or quality of the labeled food or falsely imply that other products are less safe.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has scheduled public hearings on whether health claims should be allowed on alcoholic beverages. BATF is also considering whether the negative consequences of imbibing would make health-related statements misleading and therefore should be disqualified.

Web exclusive: Brasseries Heineken puts another brand in 1/2-L plastic and introduces a 1-L plastic beer bottle, consisting of three materials in five layers and coinjection stretch/blow-molded by Continental PET Technologies (Florence, KY). Separately, Strasbourg, France-based Kronenbourg commits not only to the unusal step of self-manufacturing its own PET bottles, but to Actis (Amorphous Carbon Treatment on Internal Surface) coating process from Sidel (Norcross, GA).